07/12/12 • THE BIG CHEESE-Y From the July, 2008 Gourmet click here to view the recipe Here’s the irony of summer cooking: despite the powerful pull of all the warm weather bounty that’s suddenly available, one must also negotiate the fact that when the temperature spikes our willingness to stand over a hot stove often takes a dive. At least that’s been the case for me during the past few weeks, a period in which it w

06/28/12 • TABOULEH 2.0 From the June, 2012 Bon Appetit (click here to view the recipe) I suppose any number of factors could compel a person to march into the kitchen and start cooking, but for most of us it probably comes down to the very basic understanding that food made by our own hands simply tastes better than the alternative. It was that belief, anyway, that was rattling around in my head as I set about assem

06/21/12 • CRAB CAKES THAT SING From the May/June, 2012 Cook’s Illustrated  (click here to view the recipe) There are certain foods or ingredients I tend to stay away from, not because I don’t love them, but for the simple reason that they rarely if ever live up to expectation. Maybe if I’d grown up on a chicken farm I’d feel that way about eggs, but as a city boy the variety I find at the supermarket tastes much as

06/14/12 • SPRING’S BEST RISOTTO From Harvest to Heat: Cooking with America’s Best Chefs, Farmers, and Artisans by Darryl Estrine and Kelly Kochendorfer When I started this blog a little over a year ago, one of the intents was to challenge myself to cook outside my comfort zone. You see, despite the fact that I’ve been noodling around in the kitchen for years, turning out meals that, more often than not, are pretty g

06/07/12 • NUTS FOR CAKE! From the June, 2012 Food and Wine (click here to view the recipe) Several weeks ago I was on the phone with my friend Scott when he announced, “I love cake!” The comment wasn’t completely out of the blue—I’m sure we were discussing something food-related—but the spontaneous quality of the statement took me by surprise and I immediately burst out laughing (before scribbling the phrase on a Po

05/31/12 • SPRING’S GREEN HEART From Canal House Cooking, Vol. No. 3 (Winter and Spring) I fear I’m a little late with this one. After all, Memorial Day has already come and gone, and even if the calendar still says “spring” for another three weeks or so, in most people’s minds it’s already summer. But before you get distracted by that display of corn at your local farmer’s market, let me call your attention ov

05/24/12 • THE SOFT-SHELL SELL Adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook, Vol. II (1972)  Sometimes a craving demands immediate satisfaction. In the case of a donut, or a piece of chocolate, or even a pastrami sandwich, often the easiest way to resolve this condition is by getting yourself to the nearest quality purveyor, loading up, and moving on—freed, at least temporarily, from that distracting state otherwise known as de

05/17/12 • A CASE FOR ASPARAGUS From the May, 2012 Bon Appetit (click here to view the recipe) For weeks I’ve been looking for a way to feature asparagus on these pages, in large part because nothing says “spring!” like those emerald green spears with the purple-y tips (and yes, also because I simply felt like eating them). The problem was that while the vegetable may find its way into my kitchen with some consistenc

05/10/12 • CHICKEN, CUBAN-STYLE! From A Taste of Old Cuba (HarperCollins) Last night Alfredo and I hosted a small dinner for our good friend Scott who was celebrating one of those big birthdays that only come around a few times in your life—the kind with a nice round number that the celebrant generally prefers not to linger on (and so I won’t either). It was a great night with good friends, good food, and too m

05/03/12 • THE WAFFLE, FULLY-LOADED From the March, 2012 Bon Appetit (click here to view the recipe) As you’ve probably figured out by now, it’s often the simplest recipes that call out to me the loudest. In fact, when people ask what kind of food I tend to make, I’ve taken to describing it as “salt-and-pepper” cooking—a phrase I borrowed from Christopher Hirsheimer, one-half of the Canal House team, and a duo